Word just came down that the NRA has named liar, hypocrite, convicted felon (convictions later reversed), and traitor Oliver North as its new president.

(For those with short memories, North conspired with Ronald Reagan to sell arms to the Iranian Islamist government — a “hostile foreign power” — lied about it, and used the funds to bankroll the terrorist Nicaraguan Contras, an act specifically outlawed by Congress. This is about as close to a dictionary definition of treason as you’ll find,)

That the NRA named North as its new leader is entirely fitting.

You see some jerk driving around with a huge American flag flying (probably on a pickup — often two flags), with an NRA sticker on his tailgate, you can bet money that you’re seeing a traitor to (supposed) American values. (Being a pickup driver myself, I have nothing against pickups — just a lot of their drivers.)

These idiots think they’re patriots. They’re not. They make a fetish of worshiping the symbol of supposed American values (individual liberty, freedom of speech), while betraying those values by demanding strict conformity, oftentimes threatening dissenters, and occasionally assaulting those exercising the rights enshrined in the Constitution — rights that the flag is supposed to symbolize.

So, it’s completely appropriate that the NRA has named Oliver North as its president. An organization of traitors to American values has elevated an actual traitor.

An important note: I support gun rights and think every American adult should own at least one semi-automatic assault weapon. But the NRA has strayed so far from that reasonable position — it now takes authoritarian, often theocratic positions on a wide range of social, political, and economic issues — that it’s become a totalitarian, anti-American organization.

All that’s left is for the NRA to institute goose-stepping drills and oaths of fealty to the Glorious Orange Leader.

When I was much younger, I supported the NRA. No more.

I’m utterly disgusted.

What was supposed to be a Second Amendment, responsible gun use organization has transformed into a group of anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, pro-intrusive government theofascists.